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Mon-Thu. 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Mon-Thu. 5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Fri. 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Fri. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Sat. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sun. 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
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If you want cheap Chinese food. Go to Panda Express. If you want authentic Chinese Dim Sum food then come here. I did not find it pricey at all, especially since this place has the best dim sum in the bay area.
It's a long wait because it's good food and everyone wants to eat here. You know that it means nothing is sitting in the kitchen for hours and everything is made fresh. It's much better than eating in an empty restaurant.
Minus one star for the annoying dim sum cart carryers who relentlessly try to push their dishes to you, even though you've already ordered your food from the order sheet. The trick is to not make eye contact and ignoring them as much as possible. If you say yes to them each time, you'll end up having wayyy to much food on your table and a big big bill.
Between 2 people, we ordered 11 items (some were To Go) which came out to only $40 for all that food.
Tip #1: The dim sum meal experience is also called 'Yum Cha' which means 'drink tea'. You only eat dim sum and go Yum Cha during lunchtime so come here between 11am-2pm. They stop lunch service at 3pm and by then, you'll have very little to choose from.
Tip #2: If you like the egg custard tarts, order them right away and ask them to hold on to it and bring it out last. They sell out quick.
Tip #3: If you're driving down from SF- call in for a ticket number before you leave. Once you arrive (with your entire party!), the wait shouldn't be too bad.
How long are you willing to wait for dimsum?
30 mins? 45 mins? an hour?
Try an hour and a half. (then why did the hostess tell us it was only 45 mins?)
Our party of 6 had a difficult time getting in on a Sunday. It was a MADHOUSE. I know we have such great timing coming here at noon, right? the crew that I was with are not the most early risers (neither am I) so we just had to suck it up.
The servers are mostly in a hurry to unload their wares but some did take the time to smile. It is best to just order from the menu so you get your food fresh and fast, in case the dimsum ladies don't make it to your table.
We ordered a bunch of items to share and I will only mention the ones worth getting:
- Suckling pig. Extra crispy skin.
- Siu mai. Meaty and tasty.
- Har gow. Delicate wrapper and nice bite on the shrimp
- Taro puff. I've had better versions elsewhere, but this one will do.
- Pork spareribs were decent.
- Egg custard bun was okay, but too much dough.
They failed on my chicken porridge. I enjoyed the fried bread topping and peanuts but they used chicken neck which was very, very bony. I'll pass.
The bill came and at the bottom there were suggested calculations for tips at 15%, 20% and 25%. We stuck with the standard 15% and decided how fun it would be to take a dollar off for everything we didn't like about this place. Minus a dollar for the long wait times, for the ice queen of a hostess, for the constant flagging down of the waiter/waitress for chili oil, for water, for napkins, for tea. The sorry state of the bathrooms. The other dimsum items that we weren't impressed with. For the fact that they charge between $1-$2 per person for tea (depends on what kind of tea you get). But, hey, we still gave the standard 15% because these folks are dependent on tips.
It's tempting to give this place another try because of the free parking, but I'm very hesitant about it.
A solid 3.5 stars for Koi Palace:
First the cons:
1) The wait-patience is a virtue on the weekends if you want to eat here. We waited exactly one hour on a Sunday afternoon. We arrived at 1:30 and sat down at 2:30. We ran into our friends that morning who also waited an hour (they arrived at 12:30 and were seated at 1:30). There are tons of parties of 2 which is odd since dim sum is usually better with more people but long story short, if you don't want to wait with a ton of Chinese people, don't eat here.
2) Prices are a bit on the high side-shrimp (har gow) is $4.50, turnip cake is $2.60, xo rice noodle is $5.50 etc.. Expect to spend more than usual for dim sum.
If you can get over the cons then you should give this place a try. Of the 4 different dim sum places I have tried in the Bay Area this was probably the best. The food is made to order and they have a variety of dishes that are different but also your main staples. The dumplings were hot and fresh, the chow mein was perfect, the turnip cake-deelish. The food is really good. The setting is nice (although definitely not as nice as Yank Sing) and the food came quickly and was piping hot.
I would definitely want to come back for the food just not the wait.
We ordered set menu dinner. For less than $70, we had roasted duck, fresh crab and streamed fish! Now we didn't go there for cheap eats. The quality is also impressive. And the service is also friendly. Overall I think that's very good.
Areas of improvements:
a. Use some better fish than catfish.
b. If someone has ordered from menu, don't bother them with dim sum.
YES! Went here last night and had a seafood special recommended by the host, beef fried rice and Shanghai dumplings. This was the perfect amount of food for 2 people. They kept trying to suggest more things (which sounded yummy) but I can't put it away like some of those Chinese can. Love the pickled veggies on the table. Close to my house too! Reminds me of China, all the employees have numbers on their name tags.
I'm putting in a review about dinner (since most reviews are about dim sum)
had a banquet style meal with the usual dishes, steamed fish, garlic crab, shark fin soup, fish maw, etc.
overall the taste was good but not striking. once you become interested enough in the dining experience to seek out highly rated places, you start to form two types of 4-5 star places--either the food is particularly mouthwatering or the food selection/dining experience is unique.
Koi palace falls more on the side of impressive selection. so definitely order the things that you don't normally get elsewhere to enhance the experience.
and as for dim sum just go when it opens and sit near the kitchen... (to get the "rare" stuff first of course)
for dim sum i give it about 4 stars
at 9 AM, already a line up on Sun. , if you get there at 10 AM, about a 25 min wait
crab XLB dumplings with the crab = $32
lots of crab meat -- great contents but not the best wrapper
XO dumplings = ok
chives pan fried dumpling = excellent
shrimp dumpling = good
overall, a bit expensive
4.50
I had high expectations for this place because my Grandma (who lives in Oakland chinatown) picked this spot out for her bday dim sum. Wow! Food came out fast and tasted really really good in my opinion. All the usual dim sum favorites are present and come around fairly often. The only reason I gave this a non perfect 5 is because parking, kinda pricey, potentially a long wait if you don't get there by opening, and the fact that they forgot a special order we put in (we waited like 30 min for it)!
well, i think i have had better dim sum... i mean seriously, after waiting an hour at the door, i would expect... a lot better, but the food was just okay...
they must put a lot of MSG in their food because i felt lightheaded, thirsty and sick to my stomach (my usual reaction to MSG)... i have been here three times and each time, i go in thinking... maybe i ordered the wrong thing! but every time i go in, i think, well, it's just okay... don't get me wrong, some things are okay. but quite honestly, nothing worth remembering...
Overpriced
Overrated
Definitely not worth the drive and hour and a half wait.
They need a better system of seating people... If you ever want to eat here make sure you call in ahead of time. Why? because apparently if you call in you will be placed in a separate bracket as people who show up and put their name in person. SOOOOO if there was 20 people who came and put their name in person and you were the only one who called in (even though you happened to call say... after the 20 people showed up and put their name in person) you are now automatically in the front of the queue.
Once seated, carts rarely ever came by our tables. We ended up flagging down most of the people or just ordering it through the waiters wandering around. Food was about average to a little bit above your every day dim sum, but it definitely comes at a premium. If you live in the city, definitely save yourself a trip and just head to Great Eastern in China Town.
Something new, something different . . . try coffee glazed spare ribs!! Interesting! A+ for the creative mix, taste was ok. Everything's good about Koi except the wait but good things are worth waiting for.
I've been here on a few occasions when I'm in the SF area. Their dim sum is probably the best in… Read more »
pricey dimsum. $100 for 3 people. 1 hour wait for 3 of us on thanksgiving, not that bad...
i did like their shrimp pillows though (jumbo shrimp size).
and the bird's nest egg tarts were super good.
im gonna stick with chinatown and richmond for now...
fantastic service here! They were super busy and yet we always had water in our teapot, new plates and napkins. We ordered the salt and pepper crab which i'm told can only be made during dim sum.. and the bao yum! we also ordered the egg custard tarts which neverrr fail to be nothing but perfect
absolutely fabulous meal all in all, i already miss it
dim sum is a must do and if you happen to go for dinner definitely order the salt and pepper crab.… Read more »
Wow, this is the best dim sum I've had in my life. But the wait can be such a buzz kill. I hate the wait. I hate being mashed in a room, up against fish tanks filled with food. Bummer.
But once you get to your table, all that torture is left behind. The service is excellent. The food is fresh and hot. Once seated, my family sits impatiently at the table chanting for the Lau Sah Bao lady to come deliver her tasty custard buns. I have to remind them that we've just sat down at the table and that we have miles of dumplings to go before we get to dessert. And what a wonderful journey it is...
Although dim sum at Koi Palace is a little on the pricy side, but the quality and variety you get here is worth it. But that is not my review today. I like to review Koi's shabu-shabu dinner I had yesterday evening.
The shabu-shabu is a fixes menu and for $40 per person, we got:
- a pot of 2 kinds of soup: chicken broth and spicy broth,
- a platter of seafood with fish paste and shrimp paste, live shrimps, a whole lobster, scallops, geoduck clams, seabass filets, and oysters.
- a platter of beef slices with beef tripes and water crest.
- chicken breast slices, tofu, deep fried fish skins, wontons, tofu skin, egg noodles, silver noodles, 2 kinds of mushrooms and 3 kinds of vegetable and eggs for everyone.
For party of 4 or more, Koi includes an order of salmon sashimi appetizer and a pot of sticky rice cooked with Chinese sausage, shitaki mushrooms, dried shrimps, scallions and egg omellete with the shabu-shabu dinner. We have a party of 5 so we got the extra perks. At the end of the meal, we got fruits, mango puddings and Chinese beignen. To sum it up, it was more food than we could eat for a reasonable price.
A tip I will share with Yelp fans is that if you have 5 people for shabu-shabu, order for 4 people and that will be plenty of food. Unless of course if you have 5 people who can eat like 7. Koi's portion is very generous and we even ended up bringing some sticky rice and the left over noodles.
Finally tried the much lauded dim sum here and thought overall it was good, but maybe not worth the price. My favorites were the xiao long bao (but yank sing is better), fried taro puff, and crispy suckling pig. Some standards like the har gow, siu mai, and shrimp rice noodle roll were surprisingly only okay. I also liked the chicken feet better at ton kiang.
We also had quite a few desserts like egg tarts, Bo lo bao, and tofu fa which were all just decent.
The selection here is quite impressive and the menu features even more things. I think you can do okay if you know what to order and keep the price down.
First of all, me and my party (a party of 3) asked how long the wait was (we got there at 11:24am) and the hostess said "15 minutes." About 20 minutes passed and asked the hostess again, she said "15 minutes. ONE-FIVE." Okay... We thought it over, 'Maybe she said 50 minutes the first time...' We got placed a seat, next to the people waiting to be seated, 50mins~1 hour later. Great. We waited an hour to get seated next to a bunch of people waiting, right next to our seats.
Anyway... we got some dim sum, pretty good, and I really enjoyed the BBQ Pork Baos. We also got some of the crunchy noodle seafood stuff. I personally do not like that dish but my friend said it was pretty good; a lot of people get it. It's a lot of food for even two people if you get other dim sum dishes with it.
The tea was definitely very good and so pretty (the pot). It's kept warm above a candle which is totally rad. I think it's worth it since it is only $1 per person for tea.
Lots of families come here and it's pretty loud. I donno, I'm a native SoCalian... Supposedly it's one of the best Chinese restaurants in NorCal but I had the same level of stuff and service down in SoCal at a more convenient location and atmosphere. I can't compare this to other restaurants in NorCal so... sorry about that! Also, it's sort of hard to communicate to the waiters if you're not Chinese.
Went here for dinner with a couple of friends over the weekend. Parking was terrible since there was a wedding going on. Service was okay. Had to get the attention of the waiter a lot.
So we started out with the shark fin soup. Odd how they only serve per person instead of having a big bowl with little bowls. Tasted okay, nothing special here. Then we had fried crabs. Again okay. Honestly too much work for so little meat. Then came the soy sauce chicken it was good till I had the sauce (fermented soy beans) which I am allergic to. Sorta ruined my appetite. Then the Sweet n sour ribs which I was too scared to try because it looked like the fermented soy bean sauce. From what I could tell, my bf didn't care for it at all. The bak choy with mushroom was good as was the fried rice. Didn't care for the jellyfish/roasted pig/bbq served over soybeans dish. And then came the desert. Which I was looking forward to. Mango jelly and Mango coconut jelly with oranges. Sucked. The Mango coconut jelly was the only one that had taste to it. The other one tasted like water and the oranges were extremely dry. Overall it was not good. Price for 7 ppl came to be a little over $200, which to me is way overpriced. I think I'll just try the dim sum next time.
Probably the best dim sum in the Bay Area. Their style of dim sum takes traditional dim sum a step further (i.e. shrimp balls w sugar cane, XO dumplings). Just make sure you get here 1/2 hr before it opens on the wknd or you'll have to elbow your way through an angry mob of chinese people just to get to the front desk. The first time you see the line after 10am on a wknd you'll think they're giving away free crack. I'm not kidding.+2.5 hr waits are not uncommon.
For some reason, I'm always eating here with out of town guests, on the morning before dropping them off at SFO.
I think my guest fall into deep "knack attack" or food coma, while on the airplane. All good things, I suppose.
Tip for those visiting from LA or out of town, make your flight after 2pm, so you can have dim sum at Koi Palace.
Also, it doesn't help to flirt with the hostess (they are Chinese & don't smile back). Seating just takes LONG!
Three words: Now Pai Yip! Tripe has been disappearing from dim sum places recently, a nod perhaps to the squeamish or health conscious. But at Koi Palace they have an entire cart devoted to it in my favorite "bible" or "leaf" configuration, cleansed to snowy perfection.
The server will briefly dip your tripe in hot oil to warm it and finish the cooking, then serve it with a vinegar/soy/jalapeno/green onion sauce that you can use to your taste. As good as it gets. Of course if you are Caucasian you have to keep your eyes peeled for the cart, because they are never going to offer you now pai yip of their own volition.
Everything here was a cut above the usual dim sum place... more interesting preparations, wider selection, a candle to heat the tea etc. One of my companions found some of the dishes a bit oily but I'm not sure there is anything wrong with that.
Ridiculous waits, a bad parking situation, and lackluster service (as with most Chinese restaurants)... but for the best Chinese (Cantonese) cuisine (dim sum, banquet style, whatever you want), I must admit this is what I would consider the best in the bay area (heck, all of California, since I think Cantonese food is better up here, than in Southern CA).
Take it from me - I'm Cantonese!
disclaimer: I'm ABC and speak Chinese probably at the level of a 2 year old, but I've eaten enough of it that I can tell you what's good and what's not.
I would give this five stars because it is the best dim sum I have had so far but the only con is that you have to wait a really long time to get a seat on the weekends. We got in after 12-15 min (party of 4-6) on our second try coming here (1st time we couldnt wait) and that weekend it was raining (people of 1-3 got in really fast!). We got there 10:50am. It was still packed inside for people that were waiting but thats nothing compared to the usual. The dim sum is a little more expensive but definitely worth it for the quality of the food and nice waiters with fast service.
Everything we ordered or on cart was hot and fresh and tasted really good or at least better than a few dim sum restaurants I been to around here. The only thing to me that seemed average was the siu mai. If there was anything I would recommend getting it is the sugar puffs for dessert they are so good and very soft. I like bbq pork buns they were really good too. A bit bigger than the average pork buns and with lots of meat filling. :) Im not a fan of dim sum but the food here made me happy. I will be glad to have dim sum again as long as its this place. Definitely coming back to try some more stuff. Hopefully it rains again soon.
[Zero Stars]
I hate this place!!
The food doesn't taste good & it's expensive!!
Love their food. Hate their service.
Their dim sum is the best in the bay area. There are simply no comparison. The dim sum selection is exquisite. You can find anything ranging from traditional (shrimp dumplings, stuffed eggplants) to exotic (durian paste puff pastry, beef organs). I have not had anything I do not like at this place.
Service is not exactly friendly. Ordering could be a daunting task if you do not speak or understand some Chinese. The do have English on all of their menus but there are often little to no description of what the items are. Don't let that discourage you from dining here. Just start making some Chinese friends.
This place is so incredibly crowded on the weekends. Avoid the prime lunch hours (10:30am - 1:30pm) unless you know someone who can hook you up with a table. (or be prepared to wait for 2 hours) Dinner situation is not any better. Even with reservation there could still be a really long wait (an hour or more). If their food is not that great I really wouldn't bother. That's why I hate this place with a passion.
Talk about overrated. A friend waited in line for over 1.5 hours to get a table for us here. Admittedly it was Labor Day weekend so it was probably more crowded than usual, but still, this is pretty ridiculous.
The chicken feet and dou hua were pretty good, but everything else was just ok. Yank Sing has better xiao long bao. The leek dumplings at Great Eastern are ten times better. Don't get me wrong, this is still pretty decent food, and maybe we just got alllll the wrong dishes. But definitely not the best I've had by any means.
We paid over 20 bucks each. City View is the best dim sum I've had here and it only comes to 15-16. Great Eastern is only slightly less good and we pay 11-12 for that. I've never waited more than 10 minutes at either place and I don't have to drive to Daly City for them.
So in short, I am never coming back here.
I think Koi Palace is the best place for Dim Sum. I hate driving and I don't even have a car right now, but I rented a zip car just to eat at Koi Palace today for lunch.
I went around 1pm today, so there was no wait and there was parking.
Even though Koi more expensive, it is definitely worth it.
Okay, I have had a lot of dim sum and I must say this place is one of my favorites. My mom lives in San Fran and every time I go visit her we make a trip to Daly City just for Koi Palace because I can't get enough of this dim sum.
The outside looks rinky dink but the inside I think is really nicely done.
Yes it's crowded as hell (this place is seriously packed all the time, people are bursting out of this place).
Yes the parking lot is crazy.
Yes you could get cheaper dim sum else where.
My favorites are the typical shui mai, hai gar, but I've had better tripe at one of the hole in the walls in China Town. Definitely try the shanghai dumplings, these are my favorite so I try them anywhere I can get my chopsticks to and they are sooooo good here. I'm a shanghai dumpling binge eater when I know I'm coming here.
Gotta say, if you're not used to a ton of people, crowded waiting area, and waiting at least 30 minutes, don't bother coming here but it's definitely worth trying at least once! Especially if you live in the area. Eat some for me!
*As a note, my family use to frequent this place every Sunday for as long as I can remember.
I would like to warn that Koi Palace has let success get to it's head. The quality is not where it use to be, probably due to a lot of changes in the kitchen. Usually, when the quality slides, it's because the kitchen lost a veteran cook, and the owners are trying to squeeze more money out of people.
As I was passing by Koi one day, I noticed the seafood supplier dropping off the deliery for the day. I actually know that seafood company and they are all about cheapness. Koi is trying to serve up 5 star prices with 1 star quality ingredients.
Case in point....My family and I came here and we had 2 tables. Our bill came out to over $1000 for the two tables of 6 or 7 people. The abalone was tough and almost unedible. When you have good quality, fresh abalone, it's suppose to be very tender and sweet. The scallops were over cooked and very stringy. The soup had crab shells in it...poor execution in my books. Overall, the meal was not what I would consider a $1000 meal.
We've given this place chances time and time again but it has failed us every time. Save your money and go elsewhere for your HK fix!
One of my favorite places for great Chinese food and dim sum! Some of the best and freshest seafood around.
This place has a pretty heavy menu (literally!). Lot's of excellent dishes. Never been disappointed.
Do you know why the dim sum at Koi Palace is a wee bit more expensive than the other dim sum places? Well...
1) To pay the fire marshall off cause putting all those extra tiny tables in the walkway should be considered a fire hazard.
2) Freshly potted plants that need to be added to the mini pond in the center of the restaurant. Methinks that a restaurant named Koi Palace would house an enormous pond full of colorful Koi fishes, but I was delightfully disappointed to only sit next to three dinky ones swimming around in a tiny pond.
3) Get this, they have color menus. With pictures. AND correctly translated dim sum for the Chinese impaired. That, my friend, is where all that money is going towards.
$2.80 for the small dishes that come with four bite-size pieces, literally, one bite.
I would be able to name the things that I had, the portions and how much they each cost had I been able to steal a menu, but I think they put too much money into each one to have them be taken by us diners. So... here's what you SHOULD order:
Siu Mai: four tiny pieces for $2.80. Instead of being completely pork, they had bits of shrimp and mushroom in them. The floury outside was smooth and the filling was perfectly flavored.
Shanghai Dumplings (Siu Loong Bao): The juiciest I have had in the Bay Area, can compare to Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. You can either order 4 for $4.50 or 10 for $8.80.
Doughy Balls with a sugary coating (Sa Yoong): GET THESE, I promise they are worth it. Crispy on the outside, doughy on the inside, sugary and sweet all around.
Chicken Feet in Black Bean Sauce (Fung Jow): Don't judge me because I eat chicken feet, I'm Asian, it's natural. They are spicy and finger-licking good (pun intended, by the way).
Fried Soft Shell Crab (Jiu Yim Yurn Hok Hai): Not sure if they still make this, but if they do, make sure you order one.
Fried Sweet Buns (Ja Man Tao): Golden brown on the outside with a soft sweet center and condensed milk to sweeten the already delightful little bao. Honestly, if you set these tiny baos in front of my face, my face would light up and I would probably have a smile that ran along the width of my face; they can turn a frown upside-down.
Finally, Egg Yolk Lava Bun (Loh Sa Bao): Soft sweet bun with a warm, sweet egg yolk filling that gushes out upon ripping it open. SOOOO GOOD!
And you can't go wrong with your American staples like Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow) and Shrimp Rice Rolls (Har Chung).
Opt out of getting the Cheese covered Purple Yams, they sound funny and they taste the same way.
A surprisingly long wait (half an hour to 45 minutes) for a Monday lunchtime visit, but once we got our seats, it was smooth sailing and we were attended to immediately. The only reason we had to wait on a Monday was because they had a party of about five big tables. Aside from that minor setback, the wait usually is not that bad on a weekday afternoon.
Minus one star for the increasing price and decreasing portion size.
Get ready to throw some elbows! The wait here is serious, and the other folks waiting have long since honed their getting-to-the-front skills in the form of sharp, well aimed elbows. This is one of those places where everyone waiting thinks they're somehow being wronged and bypassed by everyone else. It may just be perception; it may be innocent mistake; or it may be favoritism. Who knows? In either case, get ready to fend for yourself. I think you can call ahead, but they have very specific rules around calling ahead, and they aren't necessarily nice about explaining them to you.
Worth it? Sure, the food is great. But I'm just not that pushy of a person, so I'll only come here if someone else will do the hard work while I wait outside.
O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D.
too long of a wait. normal a$$ food. high price
the end.
So my friend was telling me, "Make sure you go to Koi Palace!!! when you are in SF". On my last trip to SF, I forgot to go because of the many restaurant I've tried. This time I made sure that we were there to try the "famous Koi Palace" dim sum. When I got there (at 9:30am), there was already a line for a 10:00 dim sum. As it got closer to 10:00am, the line grew longer.
My first impression of the restaurant is your typical chinese restaurant. However, it's weird that it's a dim sum place without your typical dim sum cart. They will give you a dim sum menu card and you tell your waiter you dim sum selection.The foods are tasty and there are some selections that I've never seen in any dim sum restaurant.
Overall, it's a good experience because we didn't have to wait too long to get in. However, I wouldn't wait 1-2 hours (some people in line for) to eat dim sum in this restaurant.
Called ahead, about a 20 minute wait once we got there. Service was very prompt, we ordered off the menu, and they started bring us our items quite quickly.
Very delicious and reasonably priced. That being said, I don't think it's worth the drive out from the city with so much dim sum in the city.
However, it should be also noted that we generally didn't order too adventurously, and I woudln't mind comign back here for dinner or osmething, or maybe comign back and ordering some of the more esoteric items. The pumpkin/sea cucumber sushi-like roll was quite interesting.
I have to grade this place on a curve, honestly. I wasn't feeling very good this morning, so got a little woozy. No fault of the restaurant; probably more the fault of cheap gin the night before. Are you there, hangover? It's me, Sean. Anyway, I went with a friend who is from China; he agreed, it was good but not a homerun.
The char sui bo was one of the best I've had, and also the har gow and sui mai... caucasian staples, indeed. Some of the other dishes were good but not homeruns. There was one that was shrimp in a fried tofu wrap, it was EXCELLENT. Then my friend ordered duck tongues and I got green and queasy again. Not hatin', just sayin'.
My husband and I ate dim sum here on my birthday last month. We'd tried a few other dim sum restaurants in the Bay area and decided to give Koi Palace a try. On the Internet, it looks spectacular and definitely has a Hong Kong feel to it.
We got there after 12:00 p.m. on a Monday and had to wait at least 30 minutes. We had the time, so it was OK. Plus I got to watch part of a 1990s Hong Kong TV show while we waited...and freak the waitress out when I jumped to my feet when she called out our number in Cantonese. (He he...I keep my Cantonese abilities a secret...but they come out when I'm around dim sum.)
I love dim sum - I'm totally bonkers about dim sum. But my experience at Koi Palace was clarified with a Cantonese-speaking colleague: I'm a fan of Guangzhou-style dim sum - the average Zhou, common man's, carts being pushed around dim sum. (I lived in Guangzhou for 7 years and had lots of solid dim sum there.) I guess I'm not a fan of foo-foo Hong-Kong-style dim sum where you order off menus and have pretty little dishes and some bamboo steamers brought to your table. And pay $75 (with tip) for two at lunch!
I so wanted to love the dim sum here, but both my husband and I were disappointed. Nothing was super "wahhhhhhhhh!" (the Cantonese version of "wow!"). Even the sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves was blah; we bought more flavorful sticky rice at 99 Ranch. And the pumpkin cakes (which originally didn't get transfered from our check-in-off paper menu onto the kitchen menu that was printed all in Chinese, and then I had to reveal that I could also read Chinese when I pointed out that the pumkin cakes weren't on there...) were very disappointing. They tasted exactly like New Year's cake to me.
The highlight of our meal was the Ginko with Pea Tendrils (my husband found these greens to be milder to his palate, and the ginko beans in them were scrumptuous...I hadn't had this dish in many years) and the ginger juice in the sugar water poured on our Tofu Custard.
So it was a little bit of a birthday bummer. $75 for not so much dim sum that was just barely OK. For us, Ming's in Palo Alto is a little better and not as expensive. Even better is Top Island down in Alhambra where we can eat an absurd amount of delicious dim sum for under $30!
Now the dinner menu looks absolutely wonderful! I think this would be the place to come and spend a huge amount of money on an incredible seafood dinner. Maybe we'll get to do that one of these years.
I'm no expert in dim sum, but every time we come here I leave satisfied and with a new favorite. It is THE go to spot for my boyfriend's family, so we get to intrude every so often and they always make sure to order my favorites.
Service is what you would expect for the crowds so it doesn't bother me.
PS. the balloon guy is 15 and baller. He's made a business for himself so help him out.
this place is still so damn good. consistently delicious. i'm bumping you up to a 5 star rating.
if anybody else has ever had better dim sum tell me where!!
the best dim sum place i've found in the bay area. food is excellent, though prices are a bit high,… Read more »
I love all the people who complain about the long wait.
Thanks for sleeping in and making it possible for my buddies and I to sneak in at 9:15am on Sunday and not wait one second. The most beautiful part of the entire experience is sitting there at probably 9:45am, having already gone through a pot of japanese rice flower tea and an order of chu chou dumplings and see the line swell out the door.
Keep sleeping.
I would give it a negative 5 stars for service. food was okay, but when we were treated badly, everything tasted like crap. Spend your precious dollar and time elsewhere. this place is a train wreck.
South San Francisco, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Daly City, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Millbrae, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Millbrae, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Daly City, CA
Category: Dim Sum
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